RSS is cool
I decided I wanted to understand exactly how RSS 2.0 feeds are written. So, I wrote one for my site. Yes, that's right, folks! My site now has Really Simple Syndication! So, if you're at all interested, you can use your favorite aggregator and subscribe to my feed, and see whenever I add anything new (and I remember to update the feed, of course). I'll try my best to keep them synched.
Oh, what is that you say? You don't know what RSS is? Well, have no fear, because Mr. Super Wikipedia Man is here to explain everything!
What's that you say? You don't want to click on a link to get the information? But he's a superhero! He'll feel so neglected… Okay, well, let's make a compromise. I'll do a really quick explaination about what it is, and you have to use WikiMan to find out more.
RSS is XML, which is used to store pure information (with organization), used for the task of providing news. It might be a summary of headline articles for a newspaper. It might be entire entries for a blogger (Blogger and LiveJournal both have newsfeeds). RSS essentially makes available information to anyone who can access it, and gives them the means to reformat it however they choose (if they know some crazy programming stuff) or to use a program to view it.
I've been using RSS feeds for a few weeks in order to check all of my friends' blogs who don't have LiveJournal, to check Slashdot, and to check all the other blogs that I read (the people I don't actually know). Instead of going through a list of bookmarks, I just have to click one button, and then I can open all of the new feeds at will.
The program I have been using is RSSOwl, but only because I don't know of any better ones. If someone more experienced in the arts of RSS eating could point me to a better one, I'd love to try it out.
Anyway, the point is that I am now syndicated. You can check the feed for new updates. Go be happy!